Lost in Reach
Lost in Reach is a Halo: Reach and Halo: Reach beta action-drama comedy Machinima series created by N07 Productions. It was originally a 4 episode mini-series in honor of the Halo: Reach beta, but a second season was created after much consideration. The show is currently in its third season with a Christmas Special under its belt. Plot Season 1 It is one week before the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta. Andrew is stuck in his dressing room on the set of his machinima series High Life, based on his own high school experiences. Joél comes around and asks if he'd like to participate in the beta, to which Andrew agrees. After a week of driving, they arrive at Valhalla's Blue Base, where the portal to Reach supposedly is. As they begin investigating, they are dragged into the portal. Andrew wakes up on the map Sword Base with a mild headache, and quickly realizes that he and Joél have been separated. After some carnage, Andrew finds his friend Nick on the map Powerhouse, who explains that, in order to survive, he'll need some better armor. After suiting up, they depart for Sword Base once again, where they find Joél and the imminent threat of Sangheili Invasion. Nick departs for Boneyard, and Andrew and Joél move to defend Overlook. In the midst of combat, the two receive a distress signal from Nick, and they move to Boneyard to investigate. As they reach Boneyard, Andrew and Joél are nearly overwhelmed by enemy forces as they attempted to defend a refuge for others. In the middle of combat, however, they are wisked away, out of the beta, and find themselves back in Valhalla, with a thank you message from Bungie in the sky for participating in the beta. With not much else to do, the duo go their separate ways. Joél begins his investigation of the portal that brought the two of them to Reach, while Andrew erects a memorial in Nick's honor. As he says "Rest in Peace," Nick approaches him, saying that he didn't died, but rather he was wisked back to Halo 3. Epilogue of Season 1 As Joél was investigating the portal, he accidentally triggered it, leaving him stranded in Reach until it goes public. Nick starts a lawn mowing business, but mows lawns for free due to overexcitement. Andrew commits suicide due to the stress his ex-girlfriend was causing him. In the afterlife, he meets up with God and Satan, becoming good friends with them both, with all three anticipating the release of Halo: Reach in the Fall. Season 2 One year after the beta, Andrew escapes from the depths of Hell and meets up with Nick. Since Halo: Reach's release, Halo 3 seems to be mostly populated by trolls anymore. A small tribe of them have captured their friend Jesse, and they need the help of their friend Frank, a sniper, to bust him out. After retreiving Jesse from his imprisonment, the trolls give chase, following them for days from Avalanche to Valhalla. The four of them hide in Blue Base, and the portal is triggered as they hunker down. Andrew, Nick, and Frank find themselves in Sword Base, now in a state of minor disrepair. Jesse, meanwhile, has been transported to Blood Gulch in Halo: Combat Evolved. The trio quickly learn that there are also many trolls in Reach, and while revisiting Boneyard, they encounter the Badass Alpha Troll, a troll capable of intelligible speech and destruction. As he charges toward the three in an effort to kill them, Joél kills him from a distance with a sniper rifle. During the reunion of the original trio from Season 1, Joél informs them that their friend Cody, a militaristic commando, has plenty of weapons, armor, and vehicles for them to use, but chooses to only take Andrew first. Meanwhile, Jesse meets a strange man named Connor, who leads him through a teleporter to Chiron-TL34, which eventually teleports him to Coagulation in Halo 2. Jesse flies a Banshee to Ascension, and Connor meets him there, teleporting them to Ivory Tower. He then teleports Jesse to Reflection on Reach, saying that his magical powers of teleportation across such great distance can only work for one person at a time. Andrew meets up with Cody, who has taken a Spire from the trolls and is using it as a base. He sends Andrew out to New Alexandria to exterminate any remaining trolls there or to help survivors. While there, he finds Jesse, who is quick to intoxicate himself at the bar of a nightclub. Back at Boneyard, Nick and Frank make progress in converting the refinery into a base of operations. Nick sees something in the corner of his eye, and follows it to find his old armor from Season 1, albeit modified, in the refinery. After donning it, he becomes more aggressive and loses his body to the demigod Xanadu, who quickly kills Frank. Just as he does so, Connor teleports to the Boneyard, but begins his trek to find Jesse and co. before they suffer the same fate. After Andrew and Jesse return to Cody's Spire, Connor arrives to warn them of Xanadu. As he is attempting to explain who he is, Xanadu shows up. Cody and Joél flee, and Andrew, Connor, and Jesse are executed in the same manner as Frank. However, they were instead teleported to Valhalla, and Andrew and Jesse finally understand the threat they're up against. Jesse Saves Christmas Several weeks after the end of Season 2, it is now Christmas time. Andrew and Connor are hard at work attempting to repair the portal in Valhalla to return to Reach and prevent the universe from falling into darkness. Jesse, however, has other plans, and visits his niece, Alison, for the holiday season. Not long after arriving home, he catches a news report on TV about the cancellation of Christmas, with Santa Claus, in an interview, explaining that the elves have formed a union. The next day, Jesse begins his trek to the North Pole in an effort to stop the elves from unionizing. Unfortunately, his journey slows down when he encounters the last three Canadians in the Canadian desert, who steal his transportation to make way toward Alaska. When all hope seems lost, Jesse is visited by the ghost of Tupac, who encourages him to keep going. Jesse immediately runs off of a cliff he can't see. Jesse wakes up in Santa's workshop, and learns that the elves are really aliens that Santa has enslaved for thousands of years, and so they attempt to sing Christmas carols to "bring the spirit of Christmas into their hearts," to no avail. Mrs. Claus then massacres the disobedient toy slaves, somehow saving Christmas. Season 3 It is now August 2012. The portal to Reach in Valhalla is broken beyond repair. Jesse leaves Andrew and Connor, not wanting to be part of this fiasco anymore. Connor tells Andrew about the Chaos Blade, which is a weapon of extraordinary power that can be used to defeat Xanadu. The two of them make their way to Machinination HQ, where they break in to use their portal. Upon using it, they are separated, and there is a mysterious figure who looms behind as they cross the dimensional gate. Andrew ends up in a forest on Reach, where he is confronted by a mysterious figure in black and orange armor. The enigmatic man lets on that he may be working with Xanadu and uses some choice words to confuse Andrew. Before any more information could be let loose, however, Joél shows up and tells Andrew about his and Cody's new home base; a mountainous complex dubbed "The Crashlands." They begin their trek to the base on foot after their Warthog spontaneously conbusts. After a day or two of walking, the duo find themselves in a small, box canyon where they are confronted by a group of soldiers at gunpoint when Andrew steals a sword. After learning that their leader plans to sacrifice the two of them as well as his own men to Xanadu in order to convert them into Dark Warriors for his partner, now revealed to be named Trench, Andrew and Joél are forced to end the soldiers' lives in self-defense. Not much later, the two find themselves outside of Club Epic, thinking the club to be a seaside restaurant. Inside, they meet a mysterious man in orange who seems to know Andrew, but Andrew does not know him. The man in orange simply tells Andrew that everything will become clear to him at the end of his journey. Series History Season 1 A Reach beta mini-series was a popular idea with series creator Andrew Bluett (naetle07) and fellow N07 Productions member Nicholas "Nikolai" Yrigollen. Its main goal would be to showcase the new features of Halo: Reach while also providing an amusing story. The series went completely unscripted, and initially did not have a name until Andrew was editing the first episode. Because of the lack of custom or private games in the beta, the crew had to work in an unstable, chaotic environment in order to film. Fortunately, most of what they wanted to film were action scenes, so no harm was done. Music for Season 1 was mostly music from the Cartoon Network show'' Megas XLR,'' which ran from 2003-2005. Other musical tracks were from the Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3 soundtracks, as well as Slow Roosevelt's "Audio Star Satellite" and Gravity Pool's "Reach," which is considered the series' unofficial theme music. Season 1 focused on Andrew, Joél, and Nick's adventures in the Halo: Reach beta, leading in to a conflict with rogue Elites. The ending of Episode 4 shows them return to Halo 3, as the beta has ended. All three of them go their separate ways: Joél investigates the portal that brought them to Reach, and Nick and Andrew go on and live their lives. The post-credit summary reveals the fate of each character: *Joél is sucked back into Reach, and shall remain until the full game is released. *Nick starts a lawn mowing business, and is so excited when he starts that he mows everyone's lawn for free, effectively defeating the purpose of the business. *Andrew committed suicide from being under much stress from his ex-girlfriend, and befriend God and Satan. Season 2 In the midst of producing the ODST series Recovery, Andrew uploaded a teaser trailer for Lost in Reach Season 2 onto his YouTube channel with a projected release date of Fall 2010, the same general time frame the game itself would be released. However, the crew was swamped with both schoolwork and Recovery, so Andrew released a second teaser that set an estimation of Spring 2011. After releasing the ninth and final episode of Recovery, Andrew and Jesse buckled down and wrote the script for Season 2 over the course of 8 days, writing more than half a dozen episodes. Episode 5 was completed a week ahead of the scheduled release date of May 1st, pushed forward from Episode 1's one-year anniversary of May 10. The episode was well-received, and revealed 2 of the series' new characters: Frank and Jesse. Episode 6 was uploaded shortly after. In September 2011, merely days after Episode 9 was uploaded, Andrew's computer crashed, severely crippling N07 Productions for nearly a year. Andrew constantly uploaded updates videos and vlogs in order to keep fans updated on progress, as well as promising a third season, but many turned away. It wasn't until June 18, 2012 that a new teaser emerged with a figure describing his imprisonment in darkness, and how his second coming will come soon. The teaser ended saying that Season 2 would continue that July. After a 1 hour Vokle Show hosted by Andrew, Frank, and new series composer Bradley Smith on July 7, Episode 10 was released to confusion and acclaim. Andrew has come out saying that it and the then-upcoming Episode 11 would be the lead-in to the third season. Season 2 revolved around the N07 crew fighting the Trolls of the Internet until Episode 10, when Nick found his old armor from the Halo: Reach beta, and was possessed by an evil entity. Episode 11 was released in October 2012, ending the 17 month production period for Season 2. The week after Episode 11 was uploaded, Andrew added episode titles to the descriptions of each episode of Seasons 2 and 2.5. Season 2.5 Connor Paul proposed the idea of a mini-season to show Jesse's adventures while the rest of the cast was in the limelight. He and Connor traveled through Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 in an effort to get to Reach, only for Connor to magically teleport Jesse there. Connor held up the season by procrastinating instead of doing his lines, claiming he was "building suspense." Season 3 On January 31st, 2013, the teaser for Lost in Reach Season 3 was uploaded to YouTube. It featured the character of Trench from Falco Maton's "The Death of Falco Maton ," with a given release date of Spring 2013. It is interesting to note that Xanadu is not physically seen in the teaser, but is conversing with Trench and Nick inside of his subconcious. The Season Premiere, "Episode 12 - Show Me The Way," was uploaded to YouTube on May 27th, with Episodes 13 and 14 uploaded in August 2013 and February 2014, respectively. Reasoning for the large gaps between episodes is cited as being issues in the crew's private lives, scheduling conflicts, script rewrites, and quality-assurance for Trench as a result of said rewrites. Production seems to be picking back up, though, as of May 2014, with Episode 15 reportedly being completed (sans musical score) in a period of 24 hours, including everything from body acting to rendering. New to the crew for Season 3 is the creator of Paradox Tales, David McLaughlin, a.k.a. Falco Maton. In The Death of Falco Maton Part 3 , Andrew stated that Falco knew very well of his escapades through time travel, hinting at the possibility of time travel being an integral plot element in Season 3. Christmas Special The N07 Facebook page announced a week after Episode 11 premiered that a Christmas Special called "Jesse Saves Christmas" is in pre-production stages. The video was finally released on March 8, 2013, with conflicting video qualities throughout, since the production of the special was during the acquisition of new equipment. Audio Commentaries On April 30, 2012, a year from the official upload date of Lost in Reach Episode 5, Andrew reuploaded the episode with his own audio commentary, in honor of the first anniversary of one of his favorite episodes. It was mostly overlooked, but it was the beginning of the making of N07 Production audio commentaries. On May 10, 2012, the 2-year anniversary of Lost in Reach, Season 1 was also reuploaded with a commentary track, this time with Nick joining Andrew. Much like the Episode 5 Commentary, the Season 1 Commentary was also overlooked by most. Plans are being made for a Season 2 & 2.5 Commentary as one video, with the episodes of Season 2.5 being placed between the proper episodes. Andrew has stated that he'd like to do the Season 2 & 2.5 Commentary with Frank, but this has yet to be determined. Whether or not "Jesse Saves Christmas" will be included in the Season 2 Commentary has yet to be determined. Reception Lost in Reach has been relatively well-received amongst its viewers, and is praised for its comedic writing. A small fanbase has emerged since its creation, as it was one of, if not the first, Halo: Reach beta machinima series with a plot that expanded into the full game. Trivia *In the last shot of Episode 1 before the end credits, a symbol that bears a striking resemblance to the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda game franchise can be seen on the wall of Sword Base. Ironically, Andrew has never played a single game in the franchise. **This was pointed out by one of Andrew's friends upon his first viewing. He is a fan of The Legend of Zelda. *Most of the music used in Season 1 was also used in the Cartoon Network show Megas XLR. This was because, at the time, Andrew had become incredibly fond of the show all over again, and he felt that the music was obscure enough that people would hear it, look where it came from in the end credits, and watch the show themselves. **Season 2 was originally going to follow a similar trend, but instead with the remaining tracks from Slow Roosevelt's 2003 album Weightless (one song from the album, "Audio Star Satellite," had already been used in Season 1, upon entering the beta). Only the first two episode of the season had music from the album; "Boys Lie, Girls Steal" was in Episode 5, and "Racer X" in Episode 6. The trend was discontinued to avoid any possible future copyright issues. *Although Episode 5 was uploaded on May 1st, 2011, YouTube dates its upload date as April 30th. This is due to N07 Productions being in the Eastern US Time Zone, while YouTube and Google are in the Pacific US Time Zone. *In the third part of "The Death of Falco Maton," Andrew hints at events in Season 3 in his dialogue, placing Paradox Tales and Lost in Reach within the same timeline. It is unclear how the two series fit together, though. *"Jesse Saves Christmas" marked the first time since 2010 that N07 Productions has had a female voice actor in one of their videos, with two making small appearances. Cast Main Cast Supporting Cast/One-Off Roles : Note: This is an incomplete list that will be updated as roles are confirmed. Links *Season 1 *Season 2 *Season 3 Category:Ongoing